A Double Bone Comb from Karamattepe,The Nif Mountain Excavation

A miniature double bone comb was found in the excavations at Karamattepe in 2009 in the context of the Nif (Olympos) Mountain Research and Excavation Project. A new interpretation of its function is proposed here in light of both its find context in the residential area of the site and its socket for a handle, a feature not found on other comparable examples. This paper presents new suggestions about the purpose and date of this and other such combs.     

First results of metallographic analysis and absolute dating of iron finds from Nowe Brzesko,site 26, Proszowice District

This paper presents the results of analyses of metal artefacts discovered at a multiphase site in Nowe Brzesko, Małopolskie Voivodeship, Poland. Fieldwalking prospection led to the discovery of steely iron objects, ploughed out on the site among other numerous archeological finds. A prospecting sondage yielded more corroded metal artefacts, identified mainly as agricultural tools (e.g. sickles, scythes). These chronologically nondistinctive artefacts could be assigned to the third to fourth century AD using radiocarbon dating, complemented by metallurgical analysis. The results open up new research perspectives on the economy and society of the Przeworsk culture in the Late Roman period.     

The Evolution of the Pre-Confucian Meaning of Jen 仁 and the Confucian Concept of Moral Autonomy

Abstract

Once ostracized and relegated to a mere marginal position in the history of modern Chinese literature, Lin Shu 林紓 (1852–1924) has now become an important and relatively well-known figure. This paper summarizes existing research on Lin Shu's translations and the controversy between the vernacular and the classical language, emphasizing the achievements of Chinese and Japanese scholarship during the past century. For practical reasons, results have been divided chronologically into four categories: (1) Criticism of Lin Shu before 1924; (2) Early Chinese Scholarship (1924–1935); (3) Late Chinese and Early Japanese Scholarship (1935–1960); (4) Renaissance of Studies on Lin Shu outside China (1960–2000). This periodization is supplemented with a brief excursus on the current state of Lin Shu studies.     

The (un)promised land: queer identity and South Africa’s post-apartheid urban landscape

Abstract

In this article, I explore the intersection of photography and contemporary urban topographies in the production of queer identity in post-apartheid South Africa. To do so I examine Thebeautifulonesarehere, a contemporary photo-collage portrait series by Kelebogile Ntladi, which attempts to queer representations of South African cityscapes to reveal the entrenched homophobia and the systematic rejection of queer subjects. Ntladi, inspired by their own experiences of counter-normativity and the omnipresent threat of violence they face as a result, took to the streets to walk through their home city of Johannesburg to photograph the urban and cultural landscape; these photographic prints were then used as the building blocks in the assembly and fabrication of imagined spaces in which they and their fellow queer citizens would be able to live without fear of violence, where they could move freely and without repercussion. Using the trope of the flâneur as a starting point, I draw on Walter Benjamin’s paradoxical experience of Paris: his writing of Paris as the ‘capital of the nineteenth century’ and ‘the promised land’ of the flâneur exists in stark juxtaposition with his own complex experience of anxiety, dislocation and impending doom while living in the city while in exile during World War II. Ntladi’s personal experience of post-1994 Johannesburg echoes the paradoxical experience.     

Proto-Urban Establishments in Inner Asia: Surveys of an Iron Age Walled Site in Eastern Mongolia

Walled sites attributed to the Xiongnu steppe empire (2nd century b.c.–1st century a.d.) constitute the earliest investments in explicitly non-mortuary built environments among pastoralists of the Mongolian Steppe. These permanent constructions are important precedents to the medieval towns of subsequent steppe empires, yet very little of the complete layouts and surrounding remains of the large enclosures are understood. Our investigations of the walled site at Kherlen-Bars in eastern Mongolia are among the first surveys to fully document all aspects above and below ground across an entire Iron Age walled site area. In addition to detailed documentation of the large structures, our geomagnetic prospections and digital elevation modeling brought to light numerous small sub-surface and subtle-surface features that show such early walled sites, often deemed virtually empty, to be far more complex and diachronic in their formation processes and possible functions.